”You’ve to understand the current business to be able to create a successful marketing campaign”. That’s what our professor told us during our first marketing class. To understand the current business, you’ve to do research about it. There’re several ways to do it, but the most common method is the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for internal Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Opportunities and Threats and it’s used to do research about the environment of a company. My mission isn’t though to teach you how to use the SWOT analysis or to use it for analyzing a company’s environment. My mission is to describe both the internal and external environment of Campus. But I’m not going to use the ordinary SWOT analysis method. Instead, I’m going to change the meaning of the letters within the SWOT method in order to make the description more fun, playful and relaxed. Therefore, I’ve created my own SWOT analysis that aims to give you general advices about the internal and external environment of Campus. My SWOT analysis stands for:

Internal environment

S: Sweetness’s

W: Workplaces

External Environment

O: Offerings

T: Things to do

 Lets start with describing the internal environment of Campus. On Campus, you can have a lot of sweetness’s. If you’re hungry or just would like to have something sweet, there’re several options on Campus to choose among. For lunch or dinner, you can visit the glass pyramid building that offers Indian food, Sushi, Pasta, Pizza, Salad, Sandwiches and Burgers. You can also visit the dining hall where you can combine different dishes as well as desserts. The best thing with eating in the dining hall is that you can make your own waffle with your choose of topping. I can highly recommend it. It’s amazing!

On Campus, there’re many workplaces, in other words, different places where you can study. Campus consists of several buildings; Humanity, Business Building, Lecture Center and Science Building and all of them offers you places where you can study. Humanity and Lecture Center are my favourite places to study at. It’s quiet but not that quiet so you’re not allowed to speak with each other. But you can also study in the glass pyramid. On the second floor there’re both smaller conference rooms where you can sit and comfortable chairs, but if you’re going to study there, you’ve to bring sweater – it’s cold because of the air condition.

After describing the internal environment, lets continue with describing the external environment of Campus – New Paltz. When you look around in New Paltz, you notice that New Paltz has a lot of different offerings, beyond Main Street. If you walk Main Street all the way down to the river, you will pass a cozy area called Water Street Market. It’s a small beautiful area with fountains, flowers, shops and restaurants. After you’ve visited Water Street Market my advice is to walk Main Street up to Church Street. On Church Street youll find an original bookstore where you can find all kinds of books. There’s also a chocolate store where you can buy homemade truffles, and I can guarantee you, the truffles is to die for! My favorite truffle is the one with caramel and sea salt, you’ve to try it!

Of Campus, there are several things to do as well. Since we’re students, we’re allowed to take part in different outdoor activities like tubing, kayaking and ziplinging. Today, we were supposed to go tubing but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the high water level in the river. But next weekend we’re going ziplinging – it’s going to be so much fun! Except outdoor activities that are arranged by the University you can for example go hiking on your own. New Paltz is very beautiful, especially up in the mountains and by the lake of Mohonk. If you live in New Paltz for one semester, you’ve to go hiking to explore the nature. Furthermore, you can also visit the public pool if you would like to relax and enjoy the weather! There’s a lot of things that you’ve to do while you’re living in New Paltz.

Now, when I’ve done my version of a SWOT analysis of the internal and the external environment of Campus, I’ve understood the current business of Campus and I would now be able to design a successful marketing campaign with the goal to inspire students to make the most of their stay at Campus and in New Paltz.